8.  The applicant was born in 1934 and lives in Königstein, Germany.
9.  On 23 October 1990 a criminal charge was laid against the applicant, accusing him of tax evasion. On 8 January 1991 the Frankfurt/Main Tax Office instituted criminal proceedings against the applicant and informed him accordingly on 10 January 1991. These proceedings were eventually extended to the suspicion of fraud to the detriment of the joint owners of a plot of land and fraudulent breach of trust (Untreue) to the detriment of the city of Königstein by the Frankfurt/Main Public Prosecutor’s Office. The applicant, a civil servant, was subsequently suspended from office, and his salary was reduced.
10.  On 5 March 1991 the competent public prosecutor at Königstein applied for a search warrant concerning the office of a notary at the Königstein District Court. A (modified) search warrant was issued by the Königstein District Court on 24 April 1991 and the warrant was executed on 14 June 1991, when two documents were seized.
11.  Between 23 August 1991 and 26 March 1992 the Public Prosecutor’s Office granted access to the case files to the city of Königstein and the applicant’s counsel.
12.  From 26 March 1992 until 23 November 1992 the investigations were stayed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in order to await the outcome of the disciplinary proceedings instituted by the city of Königstein against the applicant. The latter proceedings were then themselves stayed awaiting the outcome of the criminal proceedings.
13.  The hearing of the applicant as an accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office was postponed from 10 February 1993 to 25 June 1993 upon the request of the applicant’s counsel.
14.  On 3 January 1994 the Frankfurt/Main Tax Office, after hearing two witnesses, made their closing comments regarding the investigations against the applicant. On 12 December 1994 the Prosecutor’s Office, after having ordered further investigations by the Frankfurt/Main Tax Office, issued an indictment charging the applicant with fraud, tax evasion and fraudulent breach of trust.
15.  On 10 October 1995, following three hearings in September and October 1995, the Frankfurt/Main District Court convicted the applicant of fraud, fraudulent breach of trust and tax evasion in accordance with the indictment. It sentenced him to two years and six months’ imprisonment. The District Court found that the applicant had, in his position as head of the municipal building office, deceived the joint owners of real estate as to the value of their property in order to induce them to sell it at a low price to a front man (Strohmann) working for him. He had enriched himself by, again via the front man, offering a part of this property to the municipality for an expansion of the local cemetery. The rest of the property had been sold on the open market.
16.  On 20 May 1996 the Frankfurt/Main Regional Court, following the applicant’s appeal and eight trial hearings in April and May 1996, in which some ten witnesses were heard, amended the District Court’s decision to the effect that it convicted the applicant of fraud and tax evasion, whereas it acquitted him of fraudulent breach of trust, and sentenced him to one year and nine months’ imprisonment suspended on probation. In its judgment comprising 30 pages, the Regional Court rejected the applicant’s request that an expert opinion be prepared on the actual value of the real estate involved, finding that such an opinion was unnecessary, as the Regional Court itself had sufficient knowledge of the matters before it.
17.  On 21 May 1996 the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and on 23 May 1996, the applicant appealed against this decision on points of law. On 6 December 1996 the Frankfurt/Main Court of Appeal received the case files together with the substantiation of the appeal by the Prosecutor’s Office and the defence counsel.
18.  On 28 November 1997 the Frankfurt/Main Court of Appeal, following a hearing, set aside the Regional Court’s decision. It found that the Regional Court should have ordered that an expert opinion be prepared on the value of the property concerned. The case was remitted to a different chamber of the Frankfurt/Main Regional Court.
19.  On 13 March 1998 the Regional Court ordered that an expert opinion on the value of the real estate concerned be prepared by the architect A. On 1 October 1998 the Regional Court received the expert opinion. On 5 May 1999 the applicant, in the first rehearing by the Frankfurt/Main Regional Court, requested that the proceedings be discontinued on account of their excessive length.
20.  On 15 June 1999 the Frankfurt/Main Regional Court, following nine hearings in May and June 1999, again convicted the applicant of fraud and tax evasion and sentenced him to one year and nine months’ imprisonment suspended on probation. In its judgment comprising 20 pages, it found that the length of proceedings did not warrant their discontinuance, as proceedings dealing with economic or tax-related offences were always time-consuming. Considering the complexity of the issues involved, the Regional Court did not find the phase of preliminary investigations or the overall length of proceedings excessively long, in particular as the applicant had not been detained at any time. It also noted that the applicant had himself prolonged the proceedings by lodging an appeal and insisting on an expert opinion. It found that the loss caused by the applicant’s fraud, following the expert opinion, had to be assessed to be even higher than presumed by the Regional Court in its first judgment on 20 May 1996. Therefore, the Regional Court considered that, despite the time which had elapsed since then, the sentence imposed by the Regional Court in its first judgment was not to be reduced.
21.  On 17 June 1999 the applicant appealed against this judgment on points of law, again requesting that the proceedings be discontinued because of their excessive length. On 18 January 2000 the Frankfurt/Main Court of Appeal received the case files together with the applicant’s substantiation of the appeal and the observations of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
22.  On 24 March 2000 the Frankfurt/Main Court of Appeal confirmed the Regional Court’s decision and dismissed the applicant’s request to discontinue the proceedings on account of their allegedly excessive length.
23.  On 2 May 2000 the applicant lodged a constitutional complaint consisting of eight pages with the Federal Constitutional Court in which he complained about the allegedly excessive length of the proceedings before the German criminal courts, referring in particular to the delays caused by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Frankfurt/Main Regional Court and Court of Appeal. The applicant asserted that due to the delays in the proceedings, he had been suspended from office and his pension benefits had been reduced. He also complained about a loss of reputation.
24.  On 5 June 2000 (decision served on 15 June 2000) the Federal Constitutional Court refused to admit the applicant’s constitutional complaint. It found that the applicant had failed sufficiently to substantiate his complaint. He failed to produce the written submissions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to the Court of Appeal, substantiating their appeal on points of law, from which the Federal Constitutional Court could have drawn further conclusions as to whether the applicant had himself sufficiently substantiated his appeal before the Court of Appeal. Furthermore, insofar as the applicant complained about the delays in the proceedings, he had in particular not specified which delays he considered to be attributable to the judicial organs and had not placed such delays in relation to the overall length of the proceedings. The Federal Constitutional Court also found that the applicant had failed to assess the seriousness of the criminal offences concerned, the complexity of the object of the proceedings, and the extent to which he has suffered damage on account of the length of the proceedings.